Archive ISS & Co

For this evening’s ISS pass, perfect for a little Yuri’s Night celebration. I was better prepared. While I didn’t have any problems taking this photo, the processing is still a nightmare because of a problem involving bad pixel removal with my new camera. This is not really as good as it should actually look – but it’s still nice enough for a casual view and just for the occasion I decided to post it anyway.

Apart from the ISS, yesterday evening I captured an Iridium satellite flare on camera – only the second time I managed this. The Iridium flares can be predicted to the second and I was not quite sure if this would appear behind or over the tree, but 30° elevation seem to be slightly above the maple. Those flares happen because the satellite is briefly illuminated by the sun, fading in for only a few seconds and then fading out again while travelling along at roughly the speed of the ISS. If you want to look for the ISS, Iridium flares and maybe other satellites appearing in the night sky, check out the excellent tracking site Heavens Above!

This happened entirely by chance… while watching the Weekly Space Hangout the ISS was mentioned and I had completely forgotten that tonight was of the first good opportunities to view a pass around here. About ten minutes before I set up the new camera quickly – it was the first time I used it to capture the ISS and while the processing was a bit of a nightmare with too many pixel errors, I think the result worked out fine. This is a single 120-second exposure with a Canon Powershot SX1 running CHDK.

I was lucky last night with the ISS, this is the third of the three visible passes taken at about 01:50 CEST. Some clouds were coming in, but it was still so clear that I didn’t need to do much post-processing to bring out the trail. But this one is again a little wobbly and I have no idea why, since the camera tripod was definitively steady – maybe it has to do with atmospheric turbulences? This is actually a 161-second exposure, but I started it a little too late so the space station didn’t fly into the top of the frame. Maybe this night I’ll finally get a complete flythrough! [Edit: probably not, clouds are coming in and it’s very hazy.]

Last night’s second try of capturing the ISS looking directly to the East – this was more difficult to process because the sky was more hazy than before. The light pollution is not really so bad in this direction, it just looks like this because I brightened up the image a little. Because of the portrait orientation, the sensor noise hotspot is now in the lower left corner, where it’s not so annoying. This is another 128-second exposure with the Canon Powershot S5 running CHDK, showing that you don’t really need super-expensive gear to take this kind of photo.

This year’s first try at photographing the International Space Station from the pass at about 00:11 CEST. Yes, I’ve still got the same wobbly tripod, so the trail is a bit wonky, but it basically worked. Bear in mind that this was taken with a Canon Powershot S5 running CHDK in a single 128-second exposure – this camera is not really designed for such long exposure times and this is why you see the bright sensor noise spot in the top left. There’s another pass in less than an hour at 01:46 CEST with the station flying directly overhead which I will also try to get – and hopefully post tomorrow.

A little basic astrophotography for Yuri’s Night – I’ve now uploaded all my ISS shots from 2013 to a dedicated gallery. The above photo is only one of the twelve and maybe not technically perfect, but still my favourite one because the space station was relatively low on the horizon and you can actually see a little curve in the long exposure. Let’s see what 2014 brings – hopefully clear skies!

My first, and hopefully not last, capture of an Iridium satellite flare. These get insanely bright and when you know how to spot them, they’re really easy to see. This was taken on the evening of September 5th looking directly eastwards at about 21:30. I had to take a 128-second exposure because I wasn’t sure if my watch was correct, so there are also some nice startrails and two planes included in addition to some sensor glow on the top left. Not bad for a camera only built for a maximum exposure time of 15 seconds!

This is another ISS pass over Mülheim, from August 16th in a 128-second exposure. I’d like to wish Fraser Cain, the publisher of Universe Today, a happy birthday with this image! It’s a much better shot than my previous effort – only, for some reason, now the ISS trail is straight, but the star trails are a bit crooked. There’s also a bit of light pollution on the bottom from the balcony lamps and some sensor glow, but I like this better because the space station faded out before it went behind the maple tree.

This is the ISS passing over Mülheim on August 14th and again I have to mention that the space station was not drunk, but my tripod still tends to wobble a little. The glow in the lower left corner is not light pollution, but comes from the sensor because the camera isn’t actually built to do a 128-second exposure.